Innovation and Improvement through Action

Unit 18: Innovation and Improvement
through Action Research (L5)

1
Research topic: 2
Reflects the content of research 2
Discuss the role of research 3
Review /evaluate own skills 3
Statement of the Problem 3
Aims 4
Research questions. 4
Literature review 4
Racial Discrimination and Mental Health. 4
Methodology 10
Research Approach 10
Research participants 11
Sampling 11
Data Collection 12
Ethical Consideration 12
Data Analysis 13
References 14
Appendices 17
Research Ethics Form 17
Research Plan Form 21

2
Research topic:
Investigating the link between discrimination and mental health among young black people in
the London borough of Lewisham
Reflects the content of research
The key research methodologies that I want to employ as part of my study are questionnaires.
Young individuals between the ages of 17 and 18 will be asked the questions. Lewisham is for
adults. I'll ask questions of those who live in Lewisham since they'll be the ones who know the
situation best. I picked this topic because I want to learn more about racial prejudice and health,
mental health in Lewisham, and how Black adolescents are handled.

3
Discuss the role of research
We start researching when we wish to learn something new. The research's purpose is to learn
more. To solve issues and make decisions, we need knowledge and information, which research
provides. The research's main aims are to lead action, gather evidence for theories, and
contribute to the progress of knowledge in a certain field.
Review /evaluate own skills
Research
Some types of academic writing, such as academic papers, dissertations, and theses, require
research before they can be finished. If you want to improve your academic writing skills, you'll
need to learn to research unless your profession requires you to produce a personal essay about a
childhood experience or a sample business email. This research helped me to improve my
research writing skills.
Developing an argument
You'll need a clear understanding of your thesis statement, which is the main topic or argument
you're aiming to express, when writing an academic paper. Before you begin writing, spend
some time thinking about the points you want to make and how you'll persuade your readers that
your argument is sound. Typically, you'll do so by relying on your own research to back up your
statements and guaranteeing that you'll be able to answer any counterpoints. My ability to build a
powerful, persuasive case has improved.
Statement of the Problem
The following problems will be discussed in this research:
● Racial Discrimination and Mental Health.
● Mental Health: What are the key inequalities?

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● The Health of Lewisham Children and Young People
● Ethnic Diversity and Mental Health in London
Aims
The aim of this research is to investigate the link between discrimination and mental health
among young black people in the London borough of Lewisham.
Research questions.
● Racial Discrimination and Mental Health.In the UK.
● The mental health of Lewisham's Black minority population.
● Mental Health: What are the key inequalities?
Literature review
Racial Discrimination and Mental Health.
Discrimination is defined as the treating of a person differently depending on a socially assigned
attribute. The 1965 Race Relations Act in the United Kingdom (UK) [outlawed discrimination
based on race, nation, ethnicity, or national origin] (Alvarez-Galvez et al., 2013). Under current
equality legislation, race remained a designated trait. Notwithstanding this legislative effort,
there are still racial disparities in education, employment, health, and criminal justice (Alvarez-
Galvez et al., 2013).

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The most frequent sort of prejudice in Europe is discrimination based on ethnic background, with
64 per cent of respondents believing racial discrimination is commonplace in a poll of 27,718
individuals (Gov .uk, 2022). In the United Kingdom in 2017, 26% of a random sample said they
were considered racist. Race is still the most prevalent motive for hate crime events. These
results represent an increase in alleged racial discrimination in both the UK and Europe, against
the backdrop of the decision to leave the European Union (Brexit), antipathy toward
immigration, and the emergence of right-wing nationalist parties (Gov .uk, 2022). Discrimination
has been studied as a factor of mental and, to a smaller extent, physical health in a developing
corpus of research. Discrimination was connected to poor mental health, including psychological
distress and lower life satisfaction, in an early meta-analysis of 110 research by Pascoe,
Elizabeth, and Smart (2009). In the study, a subset of 36 research looked into physical health
connections. In a pooled study, significant correlations with several outcomes, including
hypertension and acute cardiovascular response to laboratory discriminating techniques, were
discovered. Schmitt, Branscombe, Postmes, and Garcia (2014) conducted a more recent meta-
analysis of 328 papers concentrating just on discrimination and mental health outcomes and
found that individuals who felt discrimination had lower mental health. An independent review
of 211 cross-sectional research associating racial discrimination with poor mental health found
the same conclusion.
William, David, and Selina recognised racism as a social variable and a cause of ethnic
differences in health. This is a complex, well-organized process that combines ethnic group
categorization into societal structures and is rooted in sociopolitical and historical contexts.
These groups are assigned different ideological values, leading in disparities in power, wealth,
and opportunity. It emerges on a structural as well as a human level (self-reported experiences of
racial discrimination) (Krieger, 2019)
Numerous systematic studies and meta-analyses have specifically focused on the relationship
between perceived racial prejudice and clinical outcomes. The greatest meta-analysis to date
included 293 papers and included both mental and physical health consequences. In separate
investigations, institutional racism was correlated with decreased overall mental health,
involving higher psychological distress, lower job satisfaction, and lower cognitive performance.
When secondary studies examined specific health-related quality, racism was linked to worse